According to Jason LaCanfora of CBS Sports, safety Ed Reed is being courted by three options heavily. Two of them are the New England Patriots and New York Jets, led by two of the most highly respected defensive head coaches in the NFL. The third option is retirement, which is a contender as well. Reed passed through waivers unclaimed after the Houston Texans opted to let the future Hall of Fame go.
The fact that Bill Belichick and Rex Ryan are interested in Reed should not be surprising. Both teams have question marks at safety and both have a connection with Reed. Ryan coached Reed when he was the defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens before he took the head coaching job with the New York Jets.
Meanwhile, with the Patriots, there might not be a player from an opposing team that Belichick has complemented more throughout his entire career than Reed. He has been as big a supporter as Reed has had outside of Baltimore. Belichick also has a history of giving aging veterans one last run in his time as the Patriots head coach, including Rodney Harrison, Zach Thomas and Junior Seau, who has since passed away, sadly. He has an immense respect for smart players who understand their jobs and have given them chances to prove it with his team. With the amount of abuse Reed has put his body through and played through, he might be content to call it a career with his legacy as a Hall of Fame player guaranteed and the Super Bowl ring he won last year, but he might want to give it a go for the rest of the season with a contender.